Storm clouds form over warnings for Sandy

Sandy is inspiring the private forecasting giant AccuWeather to launch a new round of sniping at the National Weather Service.

Specifically, the Pennsylvania-based company is questioning the federal agency’s decision last weekend to not issue formal hurricane watches and warnings for any stretch of the East Coast, north of North Carolina.

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AccuWeather has publicly criticized the National Weather Service in the past for its handling of other hurricanes. The two sides also have been part of a broader debate about federal agencies that compete with private enterprise — a rivalry that once drew former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum into the fray.

As for Sandy, the weather service’s National Hurricane Center said it acted to avoid confusion, as the hurricane was about to transition from a symmetrical, swirling tropical cyclone into a more disorganized, blobbish — but still potentially lethal — “post-tropical” storm. Better to make the switch from tropical to non-tropical warnings at a predetermined location than potentially have the transition occur “in the middle of the event,” the hurricane center wrote.

The hurricane center still continued issuing new forecasts every three hours, with its tracking maps accurately pointing for more than four days toward a landfall on or near the coast of New Jersey. Local National Weather Service offices put out their own warnings about rainfall, flooding, wind, snow and other dangers, all amplified for the public by a deluge of media coverage.

Even after the storm finally made its transition from Hurricane Sandy to “Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy” shortly before landfall Monday night, the hurricane center continued to issue forecasts for several more hours before other branches of the weather service took over.

But AccuWeather CEO Barry Lee Myers said the flurry of non-tropical alerts lacked the visceral power that the phrase “hurricane warning” has acquired over the decades.

Hurricane warning zones also are simple to display on weather maps, he said, unlike a plethora of separate wind, rain and flood forecasts. And he said the terminology can affect the data that flow into the weather websites and apps that many people rely on.

“I think confusion was created,” Myers told POLITICO on Wednesday. “We don’t know what impact this had. Hopefully it had no impact. I have trouble believing that, because a lot of people were puzzled by the fact that there were no hurricane warnings.”

Oh PULLEEZZZ... is there anybody in the country who didn't know where this storm was headed and that it was a big one with potentially devastating effects? This is all about Accuweather generating business for themselves and keeping away competition. We heard Mitt Romney talking about privatizing FEMA, and Santorum wanting us to have to pay private industry for data produced by a government agency (which we already have paid for). I have nothing against private industry, but let's be real... some functions are legitimately the province of the government.

The Republican model for national emergencies will be to withold emergency information, allow people to be stranded and suffer, then have a pre-ordained crony company come in and gouge people with expensive supplies.

This was the Bush model for Katrina. Does anyone think that it was an accident that so many people suffered during Katrina?